FRA FAQ
Under article 3 of the Fire Safety Order 2005, the responsible person is the employer where the premises is a workplace, and otherwise the person in control or the owner. For a block of flats that usually means the freeholder, management company or managing agent.
In real buildings
In offices, shops and other workplaces the employer is the responsible person even where the building is leased. In residential blocks the role lands on whoever controls the common parts: the freeholder, a resident-owned management company, a right to manage company or a managing agent, depending on how the building is run. Mixed-use buildings routinely have several responsible persons at once, such as the shop employer on the ground floor and the freeholder above. Where a building changes hands or managers, the duty follows whoever has control at the time, which is why handovers should transfer the assessment and its action plan explicitly.
The responsible person rarely writes the assessment personally. They appoint a competent assessor, and who can do a fire risk assessment for flats covers what that competence looks like for a block. The appointment does not move the duty: as who is legally responsible for a risk assessment explains, accountability stays with the role holder, and the record must now name whoever did the work.
Two regimes, two roles
The Building Safety Act created a separate role for higher-risk buildings, those at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more residential units: the accountable person, with a principal accountable person where there are several. That role answers to the Building Safety Regulator for structural and fire spread risks across the whole building.
The two regimes run in parallel rather than replacing each other. A high-rise block has both a responsible person under the Order and an accountable person under the Act, often the same organisation wearing two hats with different paperwork. The fire risk assessment itself remains a Fire Safety Order duty of the responsible person in every building, higher-risk or not. It is worth recording which organisation holds each role, and for which parts of the building, before the two sets of paperwork start crossing.
FAQ
Yes, and in mixed-use and multi-let buildings there almost always is. Each employer is responsible for its own workplace, while whoever controls the shared areas covers those. Since Section 156, responsible persons must actively identify each other, cooperate and share the information the other needs.
No. The assessor is an appointee doing skilled work; the responsible person is defined by control of the premises and keeps every statutory duty. Since October 2023 the record must identify the assessor, which is also how who fills out the risk assessment form gets a precise answer.
Usually the landlord, or the person managing the HMO where day to day control has been handed over. The Order covers the shared kitchens, landings and staircases, and HMO licensing conditions under housing law sit alongside it rather than replacing it.
FRA Flow records the assessor, the evidence and the reviewer sign-off behind every report, matching what responsible persons must now hold. Free tier available.
